


Stitches

by QuietlyContent



Category: Batman - All Media Types, Red Hood and the Outlaws (Comics), Red Robin (Comics)
Genre: Be gentle, Fluff, I mess up timelines because I can, Light Angst, M/M, My First Fanfic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-26
Updated: 2017-03-26
Packaged: 2018-10-10 22:07:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,582
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10448610
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/QuietlyContent/pseuds/QuietlyContent
Summary: It was the split second after he got hit that he knew that this whole thing was going very south, very quickly.





	

**Author's Note:**

> So! First time post, hopefully it doesn't suck. I have no idea what I'm doing and I would love any feedback anyone would wish to give. Also I am not fancy and have no one editing but this silly goober, so again, be gentle.

This whole situation was supposed to be trivial really; a small group of thugs flexing their muscles on a new Gotham City block. Tim was only hoping to come in a give them a good scare before returning to his regular patrol. None of the five guys looked older than their early-twenties. A simple swoop in and a couple roundhouse kicks to the jaw should have been enough to reevaluate their plans on whatever small time robbery they were probably planning.

What he hadn’t seen coming was the sixth guy crouched behind the side of the dumpster- he didn’t really want to speculate what he was doing back there. Tim was halfway through fighting the third generic thug when the hidden man surprised him by grabbing him around the throat and slicing a knife against his chin. 

 

Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck. This wasn’t part of the plan, but he could feel a warm stream going down his neck. Thankfully adrenaline was keeping the pain from being too distracting. Now was the time to think- he needed an escape. One that minimized damage already done. 

He grabbed the shoulders of the man behind him and bucked him forward, flipping him easily on the ground and shocking him enough to release his grasp. Now that he was free he could see three thugs unconscious on the cement, with another two staring at him; frozen. One of them must have had enough sense to split. Acting fast, Tim pulled out a smoke bomb he had tucked into his belt and smacked it onto the pavement, allowing the smoke disperse throughout the rest of the alleyway. Now with enough cover, he pulled out his grappling gun and shot it to the nearest roof ledge.

He was safely tucked away in a corner of the abandoned building when he could finally assess the damage. This wasn’t going to go over well back at the Manor with Satan child already finding any ammunition to call him inadequate. Tim could already hear his voice sneering at him, “Really, Drake? You couldn’t handle normal criminals in a controlled environment on your regular patrol? Hopefully now I won’t be the only one who sees how truly useless you can be.” Okay, he knew that maybe Damian would have a point, this was one of the stupidest fuck ups he’s had in awhile. He knew that, and Damian doesn’t need any more to hold over his head. 

But he also needed to do something about this bleeding that wasn’t showing any signs of stopping. Then, like a saving grace, he remembered Jason was back in town. He had previously been on a month long mission in South America, tracking a drug lord that was on the rise in Gotham. He’d been home for a couple days, and Tim desperately hoped he had remembered to turn on his comm. 

“Hood. You there?” He tried optimistically. There was only static for a few seconds before the other end of the call finally came to life.  
“Red? Yeah. I’m back at the safe house. What’s up?” Jason sounded wary, with reason; unexpected calls never ended well.  
“I... uh...” How the fuck was he supposed to explain this without getting a lecture from Jay? Maybe he could forget about this, get to one of his safehouses that he has around the city, and stitch himself up. But he had already called, and the silence was going on for too long now.  
He swallowed and continued, “I had a bit of a mishap on patrol, and I kind of need a bit of a stitch up if you’re able.”  
He only had a beat before Jason answered with, “Yeah, yeah. I’m at the same safehouse as last time. How bad is it? Are you okay to get here?” He could already hear movement on the other end, probably Jason clearing a table or rummaging for one of the many medkits he knew were all around the apartment. He also knew that the safehouse was only a short journey if he took the rooftops, but the gash in his face was still bleeding albeit slower than it had been earlier.  
“Yeah, I can make it. I’ll be there in like, seven minutes.” And then he was up, swaying a little as he was feeling the early effects of blood loss, but he could make it. He knew he could. 

Tim finally landed onto the fire escape of the safe house eight minutes later, he ducked down to dial the code into the panel hidden in the brick, but the window swung open before he could even begin to try and remember the code for this house among the thousands of others floating around in his head.

 

He didn’t have time to dwell on it anymore, because there was Jason, his eyes looking intently at his wound and then switching up to look back at Tim. It was amazing how even now, after spending years with the man and how much the situation didn’t need Tim’s added distraction of Jason’s continued charm by just existing, he just...did. 

Thankfully Jason pulled him out of his thoughts by literally pulling him through the window.  
“What did you do? What is this? A knife wound in the face, how Tim?” Jason was being manic; he always was when Tim got hurt. He didn’t really have an answer for him, so he just shrugged and continued to let Jason steer him into one of the mixed matched wooden chairs sitting at his poor excuse for a dining room table.

Tim remained quiet while Jason pulled out all the supplies he needed to stitch Tim’s wound, and the silence remained as he let his thoughts wander into blankness and Jason was concentrating hard on the job at hand. It wasn’t until a half an hour later when Jason finally broke the air.  
“Okay Timbo, tell me what happened.” Jason leaned back as he said it, looking intently at Tim, not breaking eye contact for a second.  
So Tim explained everything to the best of his abilities; there was no point in trying to bluff with Jason. Even if Tim prided himself on being a good liar- He had even gotten a couple of lies past B on a few special occasions. Jason was the best at reading people than anyone Tim had ever met, he even remembered being convinced Jason could read minds for a good couple of months. So he spilled, and Jason still watched him. His eyes changed at some point from mild annoyance to soft concern and Tim idly wondered what conclusion Jason had drawn from the story. It wasn’t until a few seconds had passed from the end of Tim’s story that Jason finally said anything.

“Tim. Do you think maybe this has something to do with that article about your dad?”  
Well, that was something Tim appreciated about Jason, he was blunt. There was no beating around the bush with him. And yes, Tim knew exactly what he was talking about. The Gotham Gazette had run an article on the one year anniversary of his dad’s death, speculating heavily on the mysterious circumstances of his death and how it could be tied to dozens of the worst crime rings Gotham had to offer. Even with the thick skin Tim had developed over the years as both Robin and Tim Drake-Wayne, the article managed to reopen old wounds and result in many late nights of Tim pouring over work in need of distraction.

“That’s... possible.” He finally admitted. Now that he thought more on it, it all made sense. His sleepless nights would explain his mistake with missing the sixth guy, but he remained firm that even without his lowered brain function he would have still avoided the Manor and Damian. 

“Okay” Jason started, standing up and motioning for Tim to stand with him. “Here’s the deal, we deal with all of this- I mean like full on therapy session with feelings and all that shit- hey hey hey, don’t make that face at me. Let me finish.”  
Jason was calling out how Tim’s face immediately fell at the mention of feelings and therapy. When Tim had began his pining for Jason he had always imagined him as this devil-may-care character who didn’t have time for feelings and worked out emotions by punching things. But that goes in the pile of the thousands of things Jason has surprised him with in the span of their relationship, and he couldn’t help the grin that spread on his face both from Jason calling him out and his train of thought.  
“As I was saying” Jason began again. “We deal with all of this shit- tomorrow. But tonight I am going to make you a cup of coffee, we’re going to watch a really shitty movie on the shitty cable we have in this shitty apartment, and then we are going to go to bed and I am going to cuddle the shit out of you.”  
Tim couldn’t stop himself from beaming at how much he really, really liked Jason. He gave Jason an excited nod and let himself be tucked safely into his shoulder. Jason leaned down a gave a soft kiss to Tim’s forehead, and he couldn’t help but let his eyes flutter shut. At least if everything was going to shit, he could let himself live in these moments, desperately willing them to last longer than they inevitably would.


End file.
